Money is handled differently here, literally. Change is not put in the hand, as it is at home, but in a little dish. Here is one from a cafe I went to in Gazi.
This one was particularly striking as it was mirrored, but even the periptero has a little dish where the change (which includes bills) is placed for you to pick up. In a culture with a high tolerance for touching, why is money put down and then picked up? I've not figured out what I am supposed to do... do I hand the person the money I am paying with or do I also put it in the dish? I typically hand the person the money and no one has flinched or hesitated at all, so I guess that is right, but often they put the change down and then I pick it up when in the US it would be handed to me. They put it in a dish or (in the supermarket) there is a ledge with a lip. Either way the point is to make it easy to pick up again (as opposed to a flat surface where it can be hard to get leverage on the coins).
This one was particularly striking as it was mirrored, but even the periptero has a little dish where the change (which includes bills) is placed for you to pick up. In a culture with a high tolerance for touching, why is money put down and then picked up? I've not figured out what I am supposed to do... do I hand the person the money I am paying with or do I also put it in the dish? I typically hand the person the money and no one has flinched or hesitated at all, so I guess that is right, but often they put the change down and then I pick it up when in the US it would be handed to me. They put it in a dish or (in the supermarket) there is a ledge with a lip. Either way the point is to make it easy to pick up again (as opposed to a flat surface where it can be hard to get leverage on the coins).
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